The finest enactor of Balkan brass-inflected indie music is Beirut’s Zach Condon. Thile acts like Beirut are few and far between, which is part of what has made the band so memorable over the course of five albums and five equally noteworthy EPs. Condon’s more than 15-year career arc is noteworthy today, as he has unveiled Artifacts, a double LP comprising unreleased recordings from every stage of his career, dating back to when he was 14 years old. It’ll be released on his own Pompeii Records on January 28th, 2022.
Condon said in a statement that the project began as a simple collection of unreleased recordings, but it swiftly expanded into a massive anthology that included songs inspired by trips to Sicily, Morocco, and other places:
“When the decision came to re-release this collection, I found myself digging through hard drives looking for something extra to add to the compilation. What started as a few extra unreleased tracks from my formative recording years quickly grew into an entire extra records-worth of music from my past, and a larger project of remixing and remastering everything I found for good measure.”
With today’s announcement comes the song “Fisher Island Sound,” which is named after an area of water off the coast of Connecticut where Condon penned it. A button accordion, ecstatic percussion, and Condon’s usually superb vocals join the worldly strings. He claims that his apprehension with those vocals, as well as general self-doubt, kept him from releasing the song in the first place. Since then, he’s “came to rediscover some of these old songs in a different light,” but they “remain a heavy reminder of shaky times,” he says.
Listen to “Fisher Island Sound” above, and below, find the Artifacts art and tracklist.
Beirut
SIDE A – Lon Gisland, Transatlantique, O Leãozinho
1. “Elephant Gun”
2. “My Family’s Role In The World Revolution”
3. “Scenic World”
4. “The Long Island Sound”
5. “Carousels”
6. “Transatantique”
7. “O Leãozinho”
SIDE B – The Misfits
8. “Autumn Tall Tales”
9. “Fyodor Dormant”
10. “Poisoning Claude”
11. “Bercy”
12. “Your Sails”
13. “Irrlichter”
SIDE C – New Directions and Early Works
14. “Sicily”
15. “Now I’m Gone”
16. “Napoleon On The Bellerophon”
17. “Interior of a Dutch House”
18. “Fountains and Tramways”
19. “Hot Air Balloon”
SIDE D – The B-Sides
20. “Fisher Island Sound”
21. “So Slowly”
22. “Die Treue zum Ursprung”
23. “The Crossing”
24. “Zagora”
25. “Le Phare Du Cap Bon”
26. “Babylon”
